My Permaculture Design: An Overview – Health

Well looky here, I have done it again. I went a few more days without writing a post. For a rather apt reason, I might add. I have been knocked about a bit by a temperamental wisdom tooth. Which, fortunately, seems to have gone dormant once more. And then there has been the heat–oh it’s been hot.

So why is this post apt? It’s about health.

Without one’s body one cannot do much. That’s why health is paramount and should always be put first. Fortunately, I have had a fairly clean bill of health all my life. I have suffered from some sinus issues in reason years, which haven’t caused too much grief. Then there’s the wisdom tooth that has made itself known a handful of times in the past 5 or so years. But other than that, I have done pretty well for myself. Though, I would say that this past year has probably been the most testing.

I felt my best during my vegan years. Especially when I was running my cleaning business by bike. It was nothing for me to cycle 10-20km in a day and clean for 7 hours straight. I felt light, clean, and happy. The fresh air that I breathed in abundantly, every day, certainly helped.

Alas, I now find myself sitting behind a desk in a climate controlled office for 8 hours a day. I walk to and from work, which is nice—about 25 minutes each way—but the sedentariness combined with a lack of time outdoors, trivial stress, and long wind-up and wind-down times, has taken its toll. I don’t feel right.

Also, I have introduced some animal products back into my body. I kind of regret this and am finding it hard to back away. I need to eat more plants.

What I look forward to about this project, from a health perspective, is being able to grow large quantities of fresh, organic fruit and vegetables that can be eaten straight from the garden. Not being close to the nearest supermarket or take away will ensure that I am disciplined enough not to resort to the easy option, which I do occasionally now. More than anything else, I look forward to being able to reduce my stress. I want to live more on my terms and less on the whims of an employer—which, to be sure, dominates most our lives.

I need air. I need a big blue sky. I need meditative activities like cycling down long country roads, pottering around a vegetable garden, doing productive things with my hands. I need less time in spreadsheets.

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5 thoughts on “My Permaculture Design: An Overview – Health”

Health is a big issue for sure. Our area has recently gone through the trauma of finding a new doctor when the old one (resident for 35 years) retired. For some of us (me included) he was the doctor of our childhoods and the doctor we took our kids to. Being in a remote location, it has proven hard to find a new one.
We only go to the doctor if there is extreme pain (and/ or bleeding) the rest of the time we use the local naturapath, this system has proven very effective for us (averaging two visits every five years or so). The fresh air is a factor in our health, as is the trust in the natural inclination our body has towards healing.

Again, it comes back to slow and small solutions, don’t you think? We are so quick to pop antibiotics. We fall sick, can’t afford the time off work, so take the easy way out. Little do we realise, the go-go-go contributes substantially to falling sick in the first place. Particularly, the prevalence of viruses and such in the workplace.

If we nurtured our life more—subjected ourselves to less stress, ate well, spent more time outside, didn’t drown our sorrows at the weekend—we would be in a better position to avoid or fight off what so regularly ails us.

Have you plans for a medicinal garden? A garden full of all those wonderful healing herbs? I may be able to save some feverfew seeds to post to you if you’d like. My feverfew has survived and thrived despite having been ignored most toroughly. There are seedlings popping up in all sorts of places. 🙂 I’ve heard (and intend to experiement and see) it will cure migraines, from which I suffer. It’s also related to pyrethrum, a daisy containing a natural insecticide and I’ve planted my feverfew alongside the chook pen. It’s the chooks favourite place for a dust bath as I guess the pyrethrins keep the flies away. 🙂 I guess planting them beside the back door might have the same effect of keeping away the flies too. 🙂